16 connects to apply for a job - has the connects required to apply gone up?

[#1]

I was just applying to jobs on Upwork, and noticed a job post required 16 connects to apply!

I though it was 2-8 for a job

[#2]

I've recently upgraded to a Freelancer Plus account and I've noticed that the number of connects required for all jobs has increased in a weird way. Jobs that are posted for low amounts like $50 are now demanding that I use 12 connects to apply. Other bigger ticket jobs are now demanding 16 connects to apply whereas earlier, it would rarely go over 8 conencts for any job.

My earnings on Upwork are also slowly increasing. I can't help but think that Upwork has artifically increased the connects required for each job because of my increased earnings and/or my upgrade to the freelancer plus account. Could there be any truth to this and has anyone noticed anything similar? 

[#3]

No, there's no truth to that and it has nothing to do with your Plus subscription. Connects have gone up for everyone. 

[#4]

Thank you for your response. I did not consider the fact that this could be happening to others. The clarification is appreciated. 

[#5]

Hundreds of freelancers are here complaining about connects being increased at the same time, but you decided to believe that Upwork chose you out of mllions of freelancers and thought, "Hey, this guy made a few bucks! Maybe we should charge him more!"? 

[#6]

I didn't realise multiple people were complaining. I should've searched properly before creating a new question. I don't think I'm special in any way but it happened overnight so I was puzzled. My first thought was that maybe the number of connects required to apply go up as a freelancer progresses. I didn't consider the fact that it happened to everyone. In any case. thank you for your response. 

[#7]

There is not much Spam from the freelancer's side than there is on the client side. More than %50 jobs don't hire anyone. Please review again your criteria. @upwork you can do it better than this.

If you would think about your users, your business would eventually grow with the happiness you regularly put on thousands of faces.  

Please do something about job posters (Clients) as well.

[#8]

Have you ever posted a job? 

If not, how do you know how much spam freelancers send? 

[#9]

he is right i bought a plus subscription of $15 recieved 80 connects bid on 15 jobs none replied or invited any freelancers the jobs are now 2 months no reply so most jobs posted on upwork are fake upwork do not care of freelancers 

[#10]

Sure, I know there are a lot of spam job postings. What I was saying was that he doesn't have any idea how many spam proposals "freelancers" send.

[#11]

THIS GUY WITH THE "RICH" PROFILE SAID IT 3 MONTHS AGO, while we were complaining about the 4-6-8 increasing, and they made his dreams come true.

[#12]

All you're doing is showing that he was very perceptive as to what needs to change with the system.  Upwork needs to attract talented freelancers who give clients superior work.  That's how they will make money.  Catering to the $5 jobs isn't going to do that.

I do feel bad for that folks who do those jobs, but it's obviously not working as a business model for UW, it's feeding a mass influx of untalented "freelancers" who can't be bothered to even read the ToS, which in turn keeps the scammers around.  Use your connects wisely, hone your skills, and don't throw everything at the wall and see what sticks when applying to jobs.

This was a long time coming, and I'm sorry for the pain it causes, but some of the dead weight needs to go.

[#13]

As ugly as the truth is, it probably costs a lot for Upwork to employ people to deal with this mass of, let's say, not so talented freelancers, who keep needing help because they've been scammed and keep asking the same questions over and over.

Also, Upwork probably has a lot of expenses to keep their platform running so well with such quantities of people using it at the same time.

Besides, these not so talented freelancers must scare clients away by sending them inadequate proposals.

In conclusion, the current changes are totally understandable and I do hope the result will be that such freelancers will stop trying to use Upwork.

[#14]

If I recall correctly, that was the rationale for boosting fees to 20% on small jobs--that they cost more to service than they brought in revenues. It's very easy to see how that would be true. A $5 job pays Upwork $.50. If one $12/hour Upwork employee spends five minutes interacting with that client or freelancer, it has cost Upwork twice as much as they brought in--and that's not even factoring in infrastructure and other costs. 

[#15]

Yep, you're 100% correct here Tiffany - I think some of the examples you make come across bad, but this is a good one.

[#16]

And he was correct.

[#17]

I think UpWork is try to compensate the loss by reducing 20% to 10% from freelancers by taking more connects, more connects mean freelancers have to pay more to UpWork.

[#18]

I think its the other way around.

They make money with the "increase" to 10%.

The 20% is only for jobs below 500$, which don't pay the bill.

People who make money and used to pay %5 after 10k, those are getting hurt, and they pay the bills.

So UpWork basically increased 5% fee on people actually making serious money, which pays for the 10% gap for jobs under $500 which is nothing.

I made 10k in a month outside UpWork, right now I'm about to hit 10k in just about 2-3months with a client, and then I will still get charged the painful 10% free.

[#19]

After nine years I earned zero dollars in a month. It has never happened before. I earned more in the first year of work than this year. Also there are tonnes of ads with very low rates. Connection inflation on the go. Something is happning to Upwork.

[#20]

So got the news about the new "increased connects/job post" and was just wondering why doesn't Upwork charge clients for posting a job rather than just increasing the number of connects/job posts. It will help with the following: 

1- Spam job posts and scams will decrease immensely.
2- Clients will be more concerned over a job post and this will also increase the hiring rate/job post.
3- It will take some burden off the shoulders of the freelancers (more importantly the newer ones) because as of now it seems like the platform only benefits the clients.

[#21]

It's illogical to make things harder for the demands, especially when their number is so tiny compared to the humongous number of supplies.

We just have to take it or leave it.

[#22]

Upwork needs more clients and doesn't need as many freelancers. That's why.

[#23]

Hello Upwork, I wanted to share my thoughts on the recent update regarding the quantity of connects for jobs.

I understand that you want to remove inexperienced and inconsistent freelancers from Upwork in order to provide excellent service to clients. However, I would like to bring up a few points:

• I have encountered many jobs posted by unverified payment clients who never respond after posting the job. What happens to the connections that were spent on these jobs?
• Several clients only hire freelancers through direct invites. Again, what happens to the connects that were used to apply for these jobs?

My suggestion is that for jobs worth more than $100, clients should be required to make a deposit before they can post the job. This way, fake clients would be automatically filtered out. It would be helpful if you could provide some information or guidelines related to this.

You should consider taking action that is relevant to this issue and helps freelancers avoid fake clients.

Let's take an example: Someone posted a job with unverified payment, which required 12 connects to apply. More than 20 freelancers applied for the job, and each connects costs $0.15. This means that a total of $36 was spent by all the freelancers for a single job, and the client didn't hire anyone. This is something that needs attention.

[#24]

It looks like I missed a memo about another price bump. 
From 6 ->8 -> 12 (+ boost)
What's next? 60 base? 😅

This is double the price in less than a year, and I can't see it as a good thing.
On the contrary, I see it as management greed.

[#25]

it's all downhill from here 

[#26]

With recent increase in connects required to post a proposal, It makes sense to try alternate channels. 

I spend $20 per month for Personal subscription, which will give me ~5 proposals only (16*5)..

As per past trends, I have been able to get 1 interview in 12-15 proposals. 

If I play my cards well, I can easily get better and qualified leads in the budget for 15 proposals. 

Will just keep Upwork for inbound invites only, which are sparse nowadays. 

What do you guys think..